The NXR Podcast - THEOLOGY APPLIED - Christians Must Build, Not Just Boycott

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.

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00:00:18.020 Hi, I'm Pastor Joel Webin with Right Response Ministries,

00:00:20.460 and you're listening to another episode of Theology Applied.

00:00:23.640 In this episode, I was privileged to have as a special guest, Marcus Pittman.

00:00:27.860 Marcus Pittman is the president or CEO and founder of LOR, L-O-O-R.

00:00:34.800 It's a streaming company.

00:00:36.320 It's a conservative streaming company that, by God's grace, their ambition is to be a

00:00:42.320 force to be reckoned with, to take back the culture for King Jesus.

00:00:46.140 This was a really interesting interview.

00:00:48.140 I think you guys will enjoy.

00:00:49.980 Applying God's word to every aspect of life.

00:00:53.460 This is Theology Applied.

00:00:57.860 All right. Welcome back to another episode of Theology Applied. I'm your host, Pastor Joel

00:01:05.120 Webin, and I am privileged to have as a special guest today, Marcus Pittman. Marcus, thanks for

00:01:10.800 coming on the show. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. So let me frame it up a little

00:01:15.100 bit. This is what we want to do. So Marcus is known for many things. He actually helped Jeff

00:01:20.040 Durbin start Apologia Studios back in the day. And then a couple of years ago, a year and a half ago,

00:01:24.740 he moved to moscow right that's what guys do they just go back and forth between uh doug wilson and

00:01:29.560 jeff durbin that's where that's where the action's at and so he's in moscow now and uh with those

00:01:35.060 guys fight left feast network you guys know gabriel wrench gabriel wrench is on our board

00:01:39.460 with right response ministries and toby sumter david shannon chalk knocks i guess is how people

00:01:43.800 well me and david shannon have known each other for years back in georgia when we were both working

00:01:47.680 for wretched so not okay so i didn't know you worked for wretched so you worked very briefly

00:01:52.220 yeah very briefly so were you fired after like three weeks and uh did you get fired because you

00:01:57.320 want to put a pinwheel on the side of your head no i just wasn't that good at the time oh okay

00:02:02.980 i just wasn't that good at the time and gotcha um you know that forced uh me to uh me and david

00:02:08.420 became really good friends as a result of that nice and uh it was just me and david just started

00:02:13.220 making videos together got connected with darren doan got connected with american vision did how

00:02:16.880 answer the fool and uh um a bunch of other documentaries there um for american vision

00:02:21.940 and then and then we both went you know david went to moscow and then i went to um apologia

00:02:29.880 were you involved i know david shannon was a big part of it but were you involved with a by what

00:02:35.080 standard documentary uh i filmed i wasn't really involved other than i held a camera and i went to

00:02:43.260 the Southern Baptist convention to help record some of the stuff that went down for the first

00:02:47.760 one. That's one of the only reasons somebody would go to the SBC convention. That is true.

00:02:55.500 Cool, man. All right. So let me frame it up. So this is what we're doing. So Marcus is known for

00:03:00.080 a lot of things. We just went over some of that, but his most recent and current venture is Lore,

00:03:07.040 which is a streaming... Well, you go ahead and say it's a Christian conservative streaming

00:03:12.240 platform tell us about it it's a conservative streaming platform i would say by by um i mean

00:03:18.940 it's i mean everything i do is christian that's right amen uh so um but but yeah so basically the

00:03:25.320 way it's going to work is uh right now if you have netflix or disney plus your monthly subscription

00:03:30.880 goes to you know liberals uh who hate god and then they uh spend that money uh funding movies

00:03:38.080 and TV shows that you don't want your family to see, or they put the crazy diversity, LGBTQ

00:03:45.000 standards in there and all that sort of nonsense. And so you really have no say in sort of the

00:03:50.220 programming. And so what Laura's going to do is Laura's going to allow you to use your monthly

00:03:53.760 subscription to fund the TV shows and movies that you actually want to see. So you actually have a

00:04:00.160 say, you have a vote in the shows and TV shows that get made. That's cool. Movies and TV shows

00:04:05.040 a good man yeah that's cool and so it's not it's not christian in the sense that i think it was

00:04:08.980 martin luther who said you know that the first imperative of the gospel and the cobbler is not

00:04:12.400 that he makes christian shoes but he makes good shoes and good shoes are christian shoes when a

00:04:16.280 christian makes them so so it's not like uh you have to be a christian producer and have you know

00:04:21.880 john 3 16 you know i don't think i don't think i don't think art works that way and the reason i

00:04:26.940 don't think art works that way is because um if you look at the heavens and the earth and the

00:04:32.180 stars and the planets and the moon and all the beautiful sunsets and sunrises all of god's

00:04:37.300 handiwork that's all general revelation all right so god's artwork is general um it doesn't say it's

00:04:43.520 not salvific and if you look at a lot of the art in the bible it's general too like the building

00:04:48.680 of the temple it had meaning there was meaning there um you know the mercy seat we know now

00:04:53.340 but at the time it was okay here's a mercy seat you know here's a veil um it was beautiful artwork

00:04:58.720 but it wasn't necessarily like there wasn't an explanation of what Jesus was

00:05:02.980 going to do written on the mercy seat. Right. So,

00:05:06.960 so that was revealed later.

00:05:08.620 And I think the same is true with when you watch a movie and you, you,

00:05:11.800 you're, you're riding home with your family,

00:05:13.220 you're talking about the movie and you go, Oh,

00:05:15.600 there is a redemption narrative in that. You know, there was this, you know,

00:05:18.900 one, you know, when you look at like, like the Mandalorian,

00:05:21.260 you're talking about, you know, watching the Mandalorian and you go, man,

00:05:24.500 there's a lot of stuff about like adoption and covenant and all this cool

00:05:28.700 stuff in in the mandalorian this is the way yeah this is the way uh you know um the way you know

00:05:35.020 you know you know abandoning uh the mandalorian religion for the force or whatever uh you know

00:05:41.000 the true religion of the star wars universe so it's really there's a really a lot of stuff there

00:05:44.880 but it's not like explicit and and then a lot of times uh one of the benefits i think we as

00:05:50.220 christians have is that uh the the the pagans can make art that glorifies god at least to some degree

00:05:56.940 in the narrative and stuff um and so it's interesting um to but we but when it comes to

00:06:02.600 christian films uh they we've put weird rules on it you know that they have to be made for 35 year

00:06:10.260 old women and above and shop at lifeway bookstores who they have to have a horse a female uh what is

00:06:16.280 it a horse a female puppy and a child i think are the four standards that they look for for real

00:06:21.460 like if you want to sell a movie to pureflix those are some of the standards right so so there's all

00:06:25.920 these weird like not they're not christian rules um they're not derived from scripture and so what

00:06:32.900 we're trying to do is like okay if there's an absolutely fair playing ground between the pagans

00:06:38.200 and the christians uh who's going to win the storytelling contest and i think history has

00:06:44.220 shown that's always the christians that that win the storytelling contest and i think that's gonna

00:06:49.440 i think we'll see that play out but you have to have that fair ground you have you can't have

00:06:55.400 um sony buy pure you know sony who pushes lgbt stuff you know they have you know the last of

00:07:01.300 us two which you know huge video game uh that was all pushed a homosexual trans agenda right

00:07:06.820 so sony and then they buy pureflix and then they start making christian content and you know now

00:07:12.320 all of a sudden all your christian movies are profiting the the lost leader documentaries

00:07:17.200 the homosexual movies that nobody watches right but allows them to sort of so so we can't have

00:07:21.920 that um that's not going to work um and and so what we really need is just a place where the free

00:07:28.840 market can determine uh what's a good movie and what's not and not um stats and data and analytics

00:07:36.020 and marketing uh panels and all this other sort of nonsense that that plagues hollywood burdens

00:07:41.100 hollywood i would say it makes hollywood worse that's why you have um you know superman and

00:07:45.740 lois is a good example on the cw last season was amazing huge huge family narrative uh father son

00:07:53.680 you know without going into too much detail but it's superman moving back to um his family

00:08:00.740 um his family farm and raising his kids with lois lane and just this amazing

00:08:06.920 family story of how you know superman if he's like if he's late for his job

00:08:14.800 people actually die but he also has to be back in time for dinner or you know or he'll lose his

00:08:22.540 family this is amazing like people say well superman doesn't have any weaknesses but i think

00:08:27.280 like they found it and then two episodes into season two they start to push the lgbt line

00:08:31.720 you're just like why did that have to happen it was the show is like amazing so but but that's

00:08:36.820 because you know there's requirements and marketing panels and diversity directors of diversity that

00:08:43.800 you know, are required to do it for them. And there's no government laws, let's say that has

00:08:47.820 to happen. That's just their own religion. And so I think if you, yeah. And what we found is that

00:08:54.280 artists who might not even be Christian hate it too. And they're just looking for a place that

00:08:59.920 they can make a lot of money and tell the stories that they want. And I think if you, you know,

00:09:04.820 have the playground in which that can happen, you also get to decide the rules and tell them what

00:09:08.160 they can't do. And then, and then I think, you know, cause you know, we're not a free speech

00:09:13.440 platform um we're not pushing that um you know you could do you know nudity and not safe for

00:09:20.760 work content and stuff no no we have two rules no blasphemy and no nudity and then make a make

00:09:25.660 a great story and then we try to give artists freedom to just tell that story without notes

00:09:30.680 from us and all that sort of other stuff right um but but we're we are looking for talented artists

00:09:35.700 we are looking for the ones who have uh done really amazing skillful work and um can deliver

00:09:41.680 product that's awesome man and i and i like that you said that you're not a free speech uh platform

00:09:46.460 because if there's anything we've realized over the last couple years we've realized that uh

00:09:50.580 libertarianism doesn't work um it's not it's not whether but which right there's always going to

00:09:55.360 be reigning orthodoxy and whatever reigning orthodoxy happens to be in power is going to

00:09:59.920 have certain blasphemy laws things you cannot say yes that you must do so so this idea of um

00:10:06.260 yeah no like we we want to win conservatives are just one of the reasons we lose is because it's

00:10:11.380 like they're just so committed to losing you know and christians are no different it's like

00:10:15.240 you know we want to take a stand but we also want to make sure that you know that we never

00:10:19.480 actually take ground we never advance we never so we yeah we have laws we have god's law and so

00:10:25.780 it's it's not it's not man's tyranny versus no law it's it's either man's law versus god's law

00:10:31.840 yeah there's no such thing as a free speech plat like a true free speech platform right

00:10:36.940 um um even gab has no pornography rule new rules and i think i think gab would argue that free

00:10:43.500 speech isn't technically considered uh i'm sorry pornography isn't technically considered free

00:10:47.860 speech according to the first amendment because there's uh what they call uh i don't know like

00:10:53.220 lewd laws or something like that that a lot you know so but so i don't i don't exactly know but

00:10:58.560 they still have you know andrew torb is not neutral and i say this as someone who thinks

00:11:03.180 the engine tour was amazing um but but not there's no such thing as a platform that's like look at

00:11:08.240 getter and parlor right um right uh you know getter uh out of parlor uh banned our ad that we've been

00:11:15.260 running on gab we've had an ad on gab that just says uh no more gay movies and it does really

00:11:22.560 well the cpcs are really low it's a great ad for us and then we tried to get it on parlor and

00:11:26.960 uh they rejected it i had actually had a phone call with the marketing team there and

00:11:32.600 they're like oh yeah that just violates our community standards it's like well yeah so

00:11:37.260 stop calling yourself for it i think that's just that's just a neutrality thing that's just a

00:11:42.100 bond to neutrality thing and then we saw what the blow up with getter too because they're just

00:11:45.620 banning people before they even come on the platform yeah did you see that interview with

00:11:48.580 tim pool and uh i did man it was fantastic it was really good he he was very charitable but like i

00:11:54.280 I mean, they were softball questions, but the guy couldn't answer him

00:11:56.660 because he's not principled.

00:11:58.080 He doesn't have.

00:11:58.620 Yeah, he's not principled.

00:11:59.560 You could tell, you know, I always say never go on a podcast with a suit.

00:12:05.880 Well, I'm wearing a suit right now.

00:12:07.680 I'm wearing a suit right now.

00:12:08.920 The host can.

00:12:09.920 Okay.

00:12:10.260 The guest, I always go, okay, if you're that guy when no one in the room

00:12:15.080 is wearing the suit.

00:12:16.400 Right, right.

00:12:16.940 And, like, you come in with a suit, always.

00:12:19.520 Well, the nice thing about having a podcast with only two guys.

00:12:22.400 You look greasy.

00:12:23.080 if there's if there's two guys on the podcast then there's really no dress code right you could

00:12:27.260 wear something i wear something and it's like you know but if there's if there's multiple guys on

00:12:30.800 the show and three of them are wearing one thing one guy is standing out and then feel a little

00:12:34.340 bit weird but yeah no i thought he nailed him to the wall like he said the george floyd thing that

00:12:38.580 was a great example where he's like so right so right you can't have any video that uh with

00:12:43.540 somebody getting killed and he's like so what about the video of george floyd and he's like

00:12:47.200 oh well right up to the moment of death right exactly what is that yeah but basically what

00:12:51.460 it came down to what he revealed temple revealed was he said uh oh so there is a standard it's not

00:12:56.660 a free-for-all because that doesn't exist neutrality is a myth so there is a standard

00:13:00.400 and what you're saying is that you're the standard like every other big tech you know what

00:13:04.240 you're the standard at the end of the day you're going to make the call based off of whether you

00:13:08.820 like it or whether you don't based off it's subjective and it's and you're you're the person

00:13:13.340 it's your whims and your desires and so and so you're saying yeah we have a standard too it's

00:13:18.580 the difference is it's God's standard. Right. Yeah. I think, you know, everybody has that

00:13:23.540 standard. And so, you know, but, but I, I think that's the other difference is whether or not

00:13:29.720 it's like an actual platform like Gab, where it's more of a tool, whereas we're more of a

00:13:35.740 storytelling propaganda machine. So we have a little bit more responsibility in terms of what

00:13:42.300 goes out. But ultimately, we want to trust our artists just to make content that glorifies God

00:13:49.900 or is just good. That's great. So we were talking a little bit before we started recording,

00:13:55.200 and you said something that's fantastic, so you got to repeat it. But basically, I was saying,

00:13:58.800 you first initially reached out to me. So for our audience listening, the way that we got

00:14:03.320 connected and decided to go ahead and do this episode was, I actually mentioned lore on one

00:14:08.640 of my previous episodes of Theology Applied. You can watch the episode with Rory Groves. It was a

00:14:12.900 great episode. Rory's great. He wrote Durable Trades, I think is the name of his book, talking

00:14:18.120 about men. Just realizing that, okay, man, we are far more dependent on so many different things

00:14:24.740 than we realized. And God and His province in the last couple of years has kind of opened our eyes

00:14:29.220 and revealed to us how much dependency we have. And so this idea of wanting to be independent,

00:14:34.120 wanting to be cancel proof, all these kinds of things, being able to work with your hands

00:14:37.760 and attach commerce to the household, to the family.

00:14:42.460 C.R. Wiley has written on this.

00:14:44.140 And so that was kind of Rory's gig.

00:14:46.340 And he said a lot of great stuff that I totally agree with.

00:14:49.120 But there was one portion where we were talking about,

00:14:51.920 okay, well, what about the Goliaths, the giants in the land?

00:14:55.520 What about big tech?

00:14:56.440 What about Twitter?

00:14:57.320 And what about Netflix?

00:14:58.580 And what about this?

00:14:59.340 And Rory's position is that we can, by having durable trades

00:15:05.020 and being dependent on no one,

00:15:06.360 which the scripture does talk about that, you know, working quietly with your hands,

00:15:09.260 being dependent on no one, then we can outlast them, that Babylon falls. And I said that in

00:15:14.660 agreeing with him. But you reached out and said, you know, well, I think, yeah, sometimes God and

00:15:20.360 his sovereignty causes, you know, Babylon to fall. But there are also moments where we fight. And you

00:15:25.920 said a great line. So pick up right there. Yeah. I said that the Israelites wanted to outlast

00:15:32.160 goliath and it was david that wanted to kill him amen that's good right so so so so i mean

00:15:38.620 the israelites could have outlasted the philistines i'm sure they could have and they

00:15:42.480 could have also you know the egyptians and the israelites could they could have outlasted the

00:15:47.140 egyptians and in israel as well um but sometimes you just have to break free you know sometimes

00:15:52.860 you just have to send down the plagues and kill the firstborn sons and get out of there um and so

00:16:00.100 and so um i i think you know there's this weird thing with like i think dispensationalism has

00:16:07.940 kind of taught us subconsciously even if we're postman i think we still sort of especially now

00:16:14.200 right we look around us and we're like holy cow like this country is on the but i mean the entire

00:16:21.320 western world is on the edge of just destruction um and you know we're still holding to this

00:16:27.200 post-mill theology that says no no things are going to get better i mean i believe that um

00:16:31.060 and i but i think um when we look around it's easy just to go man right now we just need to

00:16:36.520 figure out how to be self-sustaining um and not focus on building businesses and economies and

00:16:42.780 and and i i think what we're seeing now in in the in the in the pagan business world i mean

00:16:49.620 you look around there is not a single fortune 500 solid protestant christian brand um that is

00:17:00.680 willing to just defy the government right yeah um there's not a there's not a single one they're

00:17:07.220 all controlled by marxists they're all controlled by um you know big government or you know they're

00:17:13.560 just in this pit of crony capitalism and bribery with politicians and it's just complete nonsense

00:17:21.020 um and and the fact that um you know you have maybe chick-fil-a maybe hobby lobby but they don't

00:17:27.600 speak out right like you don't see the owners of chick-fil-a and hobby lobby on the news talking

00:17:33.660 about you know how crazy biden is like i haven't seen it hasn't happened one time um uh oh you

00:17:39.140 know and so and so what i think needs to happen is there needs to be some disruption there in in

00:17:47.360 sort of the corporate world um that says look we're going to be a massive global brand um we're

00:17:54.740 going to change the way movies are made tv shows are made people stream and watch entertainment

00:17:58.940 from home um and then now and then and then and then we're going to absolutely uh put our fists

00:18:04.520 in the air and defy any sort of ridiculous nonsense and diversity standards. And I think

00:18:12.500 that's important, especially for a storytelling vehicle like Laura's to create a thriving company

00:18:22.380 that can tell amazing propaganda, right? Like that's all stories are propaganda. You know,

00:18:29.900 we definitely see it in hollywood that's absolutely leftist propaganda and so let's

00:18:35.000 just not be ashamed about it listen i'll try to hide it let's not be ashamed about it let's just

00:18:38.760 say yeah okay well if there's going to be a crazy radical uh pro-abortion law um that the government

00:18:47.820 is passing we're going to start pumping out amazing anti-abortion films uh that no one will

00:18:53.060 touch that won't get distribution in theaters that theaters won't run we'll stream them on

00:18:57.380 our platform you know if if uh you know there's you know let's have let's have uh movies where

00:19:03.220 the tranny is the bad guy like how come you never see that right right like you know let's have

00:19:09.720 movies where horror movies like that right so i mean there's all sorts of things you can do

00:19:14.840 all sorts of stories that can be told that no one has the guts to tell and we just want to be that

00:19:18.960 platform people just have guts um and i think there's a lot of i think there's a lot of opportunity

00:19:23.920 there um and and it is only going to work in the way that we want it to if it's a global brand and

00:19:29.420 we've always said from the beginning um this is just something either god is going to bless or

00:19:33.420 he's not um right so it's like that rock is going to hit day goliath in the head or it's not right

00:19:40.280 and it's a sovereign will and direction of god what happens but somebody has to throw it

00:19:46.860 someone has to throw it um and and so i i think we do see in a huge example here where you know

00:19:54.340 even in even in the secular world so right like you know like take like the daily wire um who

00:19:59.520 wants to be respected by hollywood right like they want to be invited to the parties they don't want

00:20:03.940 to completely destroy and end hollywood right um and whereas we're like no no we want to make

00:20:10.040 hollywood irrelevant um just like the printing press did to the catholic church back in the day

00:20:17.140 right like so so we see these i mean you know the printing press i think is a great example of a

00:20:22.640 huge massive global brand that wasn't just about self-sustaining that disrupted the entire world

00:20:28.200 yeah and and so i think i think there's a lot more opportunity in the future of the world for

00:20:32.880 those sort of things it might not be now but hopefully maybe what we do is an example um for

00:20:38.600 future generations as to what can be done and stuff like that so yeah no i think it's good

00:20:44.740 i like that uh in light of the daily wire you mentioned them and you know um i remember there

00:20:50.060 was something that jerry jeremy boyne recently said you know because they've started to get

00:20:53.780 into film and things like that you know the uh run run fight hide i think was one of their films

00:20:57.840 they got another one coming and picking up three all i just want to say this real quick yeah three

00:21:03.620 movies coming out they've announced i think yeah or at least two and then maybe one but they all

00:21:08.300 contain strong female warrior leads yeah you're right you're right everyone um and this is a

00:21:16.140 conservative group i want you to see this worldview disconnect this is a conservative group that would

00:21:20.500 say uh we're against women in the draft right like that's what they would argue against uh but

00:21:26.960 when it comes to their movies they're trying to appeal to this hollywood industry um and they're

00:21:36.240 trying to you know say no no look our our movies have some diversity in it you know and it's like

00:21:40.980 well yeah but you guys are like just disconnected from what you teach on your podcast or what your

00:21:48.100 movies are right and i think only a christian worldview can understand that consistent ethic

00:21:52.420 you're right that's a good point that's a that's a you did good pointing out that inconsistency i

00:21:56.560 didn't even think about that but you're absolutely right uh but one of the comments that jeremy

00:21:59.760 boring made that i do agree with that i thought was good was he said you know we don't want to

00:22:02.900 just make movies that you're supposed to watch or that you should watch, but the movies that

00:22:07.060 you want to watch. And I think Christians have done that historically when it comes to any form

00:22:11.780 of art. It's just like, well, this is the thing that you should be watching, or this is the thing

00:22:16.520 that you should like, but you don't actually like it. And maybe you don't like it because your

00:22:20.760 conscience is so seared by sin and this and that, and you're compromised morally. But maybe also

00:22:26.400 you don't like it because it's just not good. It's just not very good.

00:22:30.720 yeah i think uh you know i pure flicks is not an art industry they're not worried about art

00:22:38.140 they're worried about math and data um so that's sort of how they determine you know um you know

00:22:44.400 here's a well i mean it's a great business right so i mean when you when you look at and you say

00:22:48.540 um your movies aren't going to be in the theaters uh for more than maybe two or three weeks because

00:22:55.260 they're christian films right so they're not going to have a long life um so you need to figure out

00:22:59.280 a way to sell your films on dvd and so they realized that they could sell their dvds in

00:23:04.500 the christian bookstores well who's the target audience for a christian bookstore right well

00:23:08.720 it's 35 year old moms and so they just started based on math just making all their movies and

00:23:15.320 tv shows towards that market like even um um you know i mean yeah pretty much everything they do

00:23:21.540 um is is geared for women to watch even if it's a a story about men like let's say courageous or

00:23:28.380 fireproof it's still for the woman right like um it's for the woman to bring her husband to sit

00:23:34.400 through right uh but but that's uh that's uh that's just how that market is and i think you

00:23:41.940 just give artists freedom and just say man just make whatever you want you're christian you know

00:23:45.420 it's like athanasius or augustine said you know love god and make what you want yeah so no that's

00:23:51.240 good um yeah so with with the david and goliath thing i think that that's super helpful and you're

00:23:57.200 right. Like whether it be Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-A, it's like, all right, we're not going

00:23:59.980 to bend to this or something. And there has been some concessions, but we're going to hold the

00:24:04.440 line. We're going to hold the line. We're going to hold the line. We're not going to kowtow. We're

00:24:07.500 not going to compromise. But David shows up on the scene to hand some cheese to his brothers

00:24:14.840 and check on them and see how they're doing. He sees all the armies of Israel and his response

00:24:20.140 is, why has no one shut him up? He's out here taunting the armies of Israel day after day.

00:24:27.200 day and and his his you know rhetoric he it's not enough to just like well we can't compromise or

00:24:32.960 you know we can't go back to our homes you got hold the line we got to stay here as long as it

00:24:36.540 takes you know and try not to let them see you shiver try not but david like actually goes up

00:24:41.400 and says you uncircumcised philistine who are you to taunt the armies of living god today i will

00:24:48.400 chop off your head and feed your carcass to the birds and you don't see you know the ceo of chick

00:24:54.140 fillet saying that you know and that's what you're saying and i think you're right we we need

00:24:58.480 people who don't see the ceo you don't see the ceo of pureflix saying that yeah you're right

00:25:03.140 right you're right yeah you don't see um you don't you know you don't see uh you know reach records

00:25:08.200 right they're not saying that right they're you know sony bought both of them and well we should

00:25:12.400 ask a question it's like why is sony buying up all these christian media companies and why are

00:25:17.980 we letting them right and and and so and so like there's all these sort of things and i think part

00:25:23.100 of it is just because sony's a japanese company and they look at america from you know overseas

00:25:27.960 and they're like well christianity is still important to america it's part of what it is

00:25:32.100 so sony just thinks well if we're going to be in the family business we need to have the christian

00:25:37.440 media companies i don't think it's any i mean i i would think that it's probably not more um

00:25:43.820 sinister than that but also it could be right you just don't know yeah real so real quick with you

00:25:51.100 know my point with the whole david thing is i i think in god's providence in his sovereignty

00:25:55.640 there is an incredible mercy in these last two years with all the madness you know coming out

00:26:01.680 and and really the veil being lifted with you know with just neo-marxist and you know totalitarian

00:26:07.520 government and all these kind of things that here's the mercy um i think the mercy is so david

00:26:13.020 goes forward and he challenges goliath you uncircumcised philistine you know somebody

00:26:16.820 needs to chop off your head and i'm going to do it you know and feeds your body you know your

00:26:20.460 carcass to the birds. Now, if that had happened, well, still even today, we'd probably have some

00:26:25.120 trouble from the evangelical fish. But if that had happened, you know, just even two years ago,

00:26:28.780 five years ago, a David type goes and challenges the enemies of God and uses that kind of rhetoric.

00:26:35.660 The first thing that he should watch is not his front, but his back. Because Israel,

00:26:41.540 aka the American church, would actually be the ones slamming him, throwing rocks at him,

00:26:46.960 throwing spears at him saying, you're harsh and you're not being like Jesus. But the beauty of

00:26:52.200 the David situation is that the Philistines were at war and they had made their intentions of war

00:26:59.220 clear. The Philistines made it clear to Israel that they didn't want to coexist, that they

00:27:05.760 weren't a neutral party, but that they wanted everything and that they were going to kill

00:27:10.800 or enslave every single last one of them. And so because Philistines' intentions were clear,

00:27:16.960 That they hate us. They hate us and they hate our God. Israel didn't mind David standing up to them. So David didn't have to face two enemies flanking him simultaneously, the actual enemy, and then the people wearing the Christian t-shirt that really should just go ahead and walk over to the other side because that's where they actually belong.

00:27:39.380 So my point is, I think that in God's providence, as things have heated up and as the enemies of God, the pagans in our land have more overplayed their hand and revealed their intentions, that they actually, they hate liberty, they hate wealth, they hate children, they hate marriage, they hate family, they hate God, and they hate Christians.

00:28:03.520 And everyone who loves those things, they want to absolutely dismantle, destroy, all

00:28:08.860 those kinds of, as that's becoming more and more clear, I've just even realized, just

00:28:12.420 as podcasting and as a pastor, I get far less criticism.

00:28:17.840 I'm sure I'll get some even with this video, but I get far less criticism for being harsh

00:28:22.140 than I used to.

00:28:24.080 And I think part of it is because all of a sudden, I don't have to convince as many

00:28:27.840 people that there actually is an enemy that actually hates God and hates God's people.

00:28:32.160 Whereas before, I think one of the reasons why there was always the criticism of you're

00:28:36.940 being too harsh is because there was too much sympathy.

00:28:40.940 There was too much intermarriage and mixing between the people of God and the pagans.

00:28:45.780 And now I think that's so that things have been hard these last couple of years, but

00:28:49.040 I think that's a real mercy.

00:28:50.280 And I'm encouraged by that, you know, with the post-mill perspective, I see that as how

00:28:54.260 things get better.

00:28:55.420 So how do things get better when a nation is compromised and apostatizing?

00:28:59.900 Well, I think one of the ways that it gets better is first it gets a little worse, you

00:29:04.060 know, and that's what God uses to call men to courage and to stand up and fight.

00:29:08.160 So all that being said, I hope that, you know, even though it's horrible on the one

00:29:12.960 hand, the grace in it on the other is as Hollywood is unapologetic and unashamed with like cuties

00:29:19.760 on Netflix, you know, and as they're even starting to normalize not just gay, you know,

00:29:25.020 relationships but pedophilia as as they just completely overstep their bounds and overplay

00:29:31.220 their hand um i think you know that you're going to have an even better and better chance

00:29:36.080 not just being neutral and not just you know free speech but actually being blatantly against

00:29:41.060 that well i think that's why you know you have the the effeminate b-side gospel coalition writers

00:29:48.720 right who are who are just you know just can't get a single retweet on any article they share

00:29:54.280 on twitter and then you have you know someone like uh you know uh you know ad who's like getting

00:30:02.300 more views on his youtube channel than the gospel coalition is on you know right and it's like why

00:30:08.940 is that you know why is joe rogan the most listened to podcast in the history of the world

00:30:13.960 right well it's because people want a man yeah right people want to be they want someone who's

00:30:19.140 going to be harsh. Um, I mean, you know, the judgment on us is that it's Joe Rogan and not

00:30:25.980 someone, uh, you know, not a Christian podcaster. Right. Um, and, and, and I think that's the

00:30:31.140 judgment, but I think, um, I think it should give us, uh, strength to go, you know what,

00:30:37.760 we can be hard too. Um, you know, we, we, we can, we can go harder and we can, we don't have to

00:30:42.300 worry about being winsome and all that other nonsense that, uh, the gospel coalition is

00:30:47.880 failing with right they're they're pushing this narrative of winsomeness and niceness and

00:30:53.500 effeminacy and the thing is and again and they're and they're losing right it's not like look at

00:30:58.840 their data right like go to their youtube channel you can see like their upload rates are like they

00:31:04.340 maybe have two or three hundred views we go to apologia studios is uh channel who talks about

00:31:09.760 abortion and all sorts of uh uh how you say uh uh stuff the algorithm hates on youtube and they're

00:31:16.620 still killing um the niceties of the gospel coalition so i think um i think uh when you

00:31:23.880 see that you just go okay there's obviously a market there uh for i like to say there's a market

00:31:29.360 for violence like there there's a market for that yeah um and if nothing else godly a godly violence

00:31:36.440 right there's a there's a market for god a godly fight godly violence and and really what you're

00:31:40.760 saying there's a market for masculinity half yeah really half the market is a market you don't even

00:31:48.200 have masculinity in the fashion industry look at carhartt right yeah like they have all these

00:31:53.640 strong men who like you know farmers and you know blue collar people wearing this stuff and

00:32:00.020 carhartt just backed out and they're like and their whole audience base is like wait a minute

00:32:05.940 we don't even have fashion right what there's nothing for men not even a shirt it blew my

00:32:13.300 mind that like starbucks dropped their mandate for the vaccine and i have a theory as to why

00:32:18.600 they did that why yeah what is it my theory is uh because uh thus saith their lord um and so

00:32:27.760 the supreme court ruled and they obeyed their government they i mean they obeyed their their

00:32:33.200 master right um so i think that's why they did it i don't think it was like yeah we're anti everyone's

00:32:38.480 like yeah here's my theory i think it's because starbucks is you know it's it's all over the

00:32:45.020 nation all over the world but um a lot of higher-ups and people you know from the ground

00:32:50.300 up where starbucks started is seattle portland you know and even though these are people who

00:32:54.780 are super liberal when it comes to sexual agenda and all those kinds of things yeah they also

00:32:59.000 there's this weird overlap where it's like yeah we're all homosexual but we also are anti-vax

00:33:03.760 yeah they're also i think i think the hippie you know i mean the hippie vibe might have won the

00:33:08.800 day but yeah they're also capitalists in the sense of you know their job is to make a lot of money

00:33:15.000 right right i'm not maybe maybe they might publicly they don't speak like they're capitalists but

00:33:20.540 in their work uh they certainly do um and and and so i think um you know there's this i like to say

00:33:27.900 that like capitalism is one of those tools that god has given man to restrain evil yeah um i think

00:33:34.040 you see that with um uh you know when a while back ago when when chick-fil-a you know stood

00:33:40.080 their ground against the homosexual movement um it just emboldened the conservatives even more

00:33:46.140 and then eventually the homosexuals just disappeared and stopped worrying about chick-fil-a

00:33:50.920 um and and and so you know there was just sort of this there's always seems to be this sort of thing

00:33:56.920 where God in His common grace has given economics as a means to restrain evil.

00:34:06.020 Because I know if I want to buy something you do or you've made,

00:34:11.980 I would trust, based on the transaction alone and the covenant we're making

00:34:17.420 in that purchase, is that I'm giving you money and I expect it to be good.

00:34:23.520 And you're going to work hard and make it good and not rip me off

00:34:26.180 because you want to make more money and you want me to tell my friends and that word of mouth sort

00:34:30.280 of thing. So that is complete common grace to stop evil and greed. We see this too, like with

00:34:37.480 all these, everyone's like, oh, we need to regulate the Bitcoin market. We need to regulate

00:34:41.880 the Bitcoin industry. And there's all these scammers, everybody, like there's tons of scams

00:34:46.180 in the Bitcoin industry. But I feel like people are being made more aware and they're being more

00:34:50.800 cautious in their investments and like which coins they invest in or not. So it seems like

00:34:55.300 even without the government involved there's this complete free market sort of thing where you see

00:34:59.660 you know there's youtube videos exposing scammers and all this sort of stuff and people are just

00:35:04.080 becoming more and more aware in a just completely without any government involvement of hey maybe i

00:35:08.920 shouldn't invest in that you know right so you're always going to have you know wicked companies and

00:35:14.540 all that sort of stuff but ideally they go out of business right like carhartt like that's what we

00:35:20.720 want to see right we want to see carhartt go out of business yep that's right so um with the back

00:35:24.840 to the winsome thing i i hate that word you know if i had a dollar every time somebody said you

00:35:29.800 should be winsome i'd be a rich man but uh with the you know the gospel coalition and you know

00:35:35.160 advocating for winsomeness i think one of the things is again that's been revealed recently

00:35:39.220 and one of the reasons why people aren't clicking on their stuff i don't think it's just because

00:35:42.140 they're there it's unattractive the message of niceness um i think it's because um it's being

00:35:47.580 revealed that they're not nice right it's um at the end of the day uh again it's not whether but

00:35:52.080 which gospel, the reason why they're shoving winsomeness and niceness and effeminate gentleness,

00:35:59.640 gentleness is not effeminate, but an effeminate form of gentleness down their listeners' throats

00:36:04.380 is not so that they'll be nice to everyone, not so that they'll be gentle to everyone,

00:36:10.440 but so that they'll be nice and gentle towards liberal progressives. So that they'll be nice

00:36:16.380 and gentle towards Biden. So they'll be nice and gentle.

00:36:19.300 David French.

00:36:19.800 Yeah, David, yeah, exactly. You know, Colin, what's the other one? What's the other one? Francis Collins. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Francis Collins. Exactly. Yeah, well, yeah, he was right there with Russell Moore, you know, with Tim Keller and all this.

00:36:33.340 what yeah i said 100 yeah so so they're saying be nice to them but what simultaneously is

00:36:40.640 happening is is in their demands that christians fulfill the law of love and be nice to this party

00:36:47.120 over here um what what happens by way of consequence is hatred towards this party over here

00:36:53.720 right that all these people are losing their jobs now you know um so because we're being nice to them

00:36:59.040 and we're not allowed to fight, they're getting their way and tyranny is taking the day and people

00:37:05.000 are losing their jobs and their livelihoods and there's no more medical freedom. And so kids are

00:37:11.600 having to wear masks at school. And so I think people are just starting to realize it's not just

00:37:15.220 that nice doesn't sell because it's uninteresting or it's boring. It's the fact that people are

00:37:21.020 realizing they're not actually nice. They're not nice. They're nice to the bad guys and they're

00:37:26.300 cruel to their own. Yeah, that's right. By the way, you mentioned bodily autonomy and that sort

00:37:35.200 of thing. Isn't it interesting that it's now the Christians that are pushing the my body,

00:37:40.780 my choice narrative? Isn't that God's poetic justice? I think towards them, I think that's

00:37:47.180 sort of the judgment they've brought upon themselves is they've been pushing this,

00:37:51.060 So my body, my choice, I'll die for this right.

00:37:53.940 And now they've given it up immediately.

00:37:57.400 And now the Christians are like, okay, well,

00:37:59.240 we'll tell you exactly what this means in the right way to wield it.

00:38:02.760 Right.

00:38:03.220 That right.

00:38:03.840 And so that is a, that's a good story.

00:38:07.560 Every, every judgment God does has some sort of poetic artistry to it.

00:38:11.420 And I think that's part of it.

00:38:12.600 Yep.

00:38:12.820 That's a good story.

00:38:13.880 Well, okay.

00:38:14.320 So let's, let's spend the rest of our time.

00:38:16.060 We don't have to spend too long,

00:38:17.080 but just tell our listeners more about lore and how they can get involved

00:38:20.820 and what, you know, what's coming down the pipeline dates, times, what can we expect?

00:38:25.760 Yeah.

00:38:26.960 So we're going to be doing our beta very soon.

00:38:31.220 And I mean, very soon, hopefully within, I would say the next month.

00:38:35.760 Wow.

00:38:36.340 And so one thing you want to do is you want to join the mailing list.

00:38:40.660 If you go to lore.tv, there's a subscriber mailing list and join that mailing list.

00:38:45.140 And we'll send out an email once the beta starts.

00:38:48.440 And then that'll be invite only thing.

00:38:50.820 Um, and then from there, uh, we'll slowly transition into, um, an actual functioning

00:38:57.800 product where you're funding films and TV shows.

00:39:00.640 And, um, hopefully we'll just continue to snowball from there, but that's, that's the

00:39:05.780 plan.

00:39:06.000 Uh, so, so, so that's, uh, very soon.

00:39:09.840 Um, we don't have an exact date, but I'll just say it's, it's, it's coming up pretty

00:39:13.000 quickly.

00:39:13.340 uh and and and uh and and then um the the goal really is we're we we have amazing projects that

00:39:22.760 just are not going to be made anywhere else um uh if you look at like sage for example that uh

00:39:28.780 uh that that we just dropped uh cody halford is the guy that did it um and he he pitched this

00:39:36.280 you know the story of uh it's a new age couple where one of the um one of the

00:39:43.900 one of one of the group one of the persons in the couple um becomes a christian uh and then

00:39:53.400 the other person takes the them on a tour across the united states all this new age stuff to try

00:39:59.280 to get them back to new age theology and it was just such a it was too dark for pureflix i mean

00:40:05.220 this is a guy who's already sold stuff so there's stuff like that and then of course laura clauston's

00:40:09.200 project which which actually has kevin sorbo with it um who's doing the voiceover for they're doing

00:40:14.840 these short animated cartoons uh sort of like you would see on disney plus right you have these

00:40:19.240 shorts but these are all shorts related to uh graphically telling you about abortion um animated

00:40:26.620 like through animation and uh man let me tell you um it is one of i i saw just the the sketch

00:40:35.620 the sketches of the first episode and it's one of the most powerful pieces of art i've ever seen in

00:40:40.980 my life um just truly incredible um and uh kevin's already did a great job with that and then

00:40:48.040 um but but the thing is that these these are all being animated by like secret disney animators

00:40:53.460 right like you know either past or present and so and so you know this is you know these people

00:40:59.100 exist out there and they want to make stuff like this um and and and so you know so they're not

00:41:05.300 just nobodies who we found on youtube who can draw like these are professions um um and uh you

00:41:13.480 know so there's that and then you know dark collar is um a a reform perspective of ghost hunting is

00:41:20.360 probably the best way to say it is a documentary series um except uh you know it's it's a it's a

00:41:25.440 real uh biblical look at you know demon possession you know you know actual demon possession and you

00:41:31.820 know a small coal mining town uh where everyone's on meth and drugs i've always wanted to see some

00:41:37.820 some kind of you know exorcism you know demonic kind of thing that's not catholic it's always

00:41:43.420 catholic yeah i think in the reform perspective uh i think you know uh an exorcism is just

00:41:49.580 salvation yeah um and and so it's really cool ghost hunting sort of you know like series and

00:41:57.100 then the other thing we have is uh you know uh follow the dead is an amazing um uh comedy irish

00:42:03.760 comedy zombie movie horror movie that's cool so so that's just something you know you're just not

00:42:09.120 going to get that sort of stuff and so these these movies will be progressing on the platform and um

00:42:13.960 as our subscriber base grows you'll be able we'll be able to fund more and more um and you know we're

00:42:19.040 We are, we have, uh, you know, the PKs by the way, um, is, is fantastic.

00:42:23.620 What's that?

00:42:24.380 The PKs.

00:42:25.380 Yeah.

00:42:25.580 The PKs is a comedy sitcom starring show Baraka.

00:42:28.440 I don't know if you're familiar with him.

00:42:29.740 He's a hip hop artist, Christian hip hop artist.

00:42:32.080 Uh, so it's starring show Baraka and, uh, it's about, uh, uh, uh, a, a, a multiracial

00:42:38.700 family, um, who is trying to, uh, the father is the pastor of a church and he's, uh, balancing,

00:42:46.020 um you know keeping his household in order and his church in order all at the same time and

00:42:50.840 it's really cool really cool comedy that you see as as the household deteriorates the church does

00:42:57.020 too and then like it's this really cool narrative on that um and so that's that pilot's actually

00:43:02.980 we already shot that it's being edited now um and and so there's a lot of stuff and there's a lot

00:43:07.840 more stuff um that i'm really excited about um that that we'll be announcing as as we grow that's

00:43:15.260 Awesome, Marcus. So real quick, tell our listeners and tell me, I'm curious. So how does the financial model work? Netflix, it's a monthly thing, but you said you get to choose. So what does somebody pay to watch Lore?

00:43:29.840 Yeah, I'm not going to answer those questions yet.

00:43:32.080 Okay.

00:43:33.140 That'll all come out as we do beta testing

00:43:35.980 and get the data and stuff like that

00:43:37.540 that we need to be able to answer those questions

00:43:39.660 and the specifics of it.

00:43:41.700 But yeah, I'll keep that as a surprise for now.

00:43:48.420 But yeah, so when you talk about the financial model,

00:43:52.140 I say that we've been very successful

00:43:54.080 with very little at this point.

00:43:56.960 We've raised half a million for our first seed round, which is nothing in the film industry.

00:44:03.740 I mean, people spend $20 or $30 million on a Christian movie, and that's just one movie, right?

00:44:12.880 And we've done, you know, we've raised $500,000, and we've already acquired, you know, at least maybe 10 to 12 projects that we hope to launch soon.

00:44:22.980 So, I mean, like, we're crushing it.

00:44:25.480 And so, you know, which, which is good for, you know, could perhaps some people in your

00:44:29.880 audience are really experienced investors just to know that, you know, you don't have

00:44:37.820 to invest in one movie.

00:44:39.720 You can invest in the platform that'll make all the movies, right?

00:44:43.080 Like that's the real, the real goal, especially for Christians.

00:44:47.120 We want to take dominion.

00:44:48.580 And so one of that ways we do that is take dominion of stories.

00:44:52.400 Cool.

00:44:53.780 Surprise, surprise.

00:44:54.620 we'll save it for a surprise $500 a month that's a surprise that's why you don't want to say if you

00:45:00.340 want yeah all right cool well any market allows i'm cool with it yeah right that's true yeah there's

00:45:07.560 no there's no there's no uh cap you can always pay more yeah um all right any last final thoughts

00:45:13.000 for our listeners no just uh you know go to lore tv there we know said there's a subscriber uh tab

00:45:19.440 but there's also a creator tab. And then if you're an artist or filmmaker, you work in the

00:45:24.740 industry and you have an idea you want to pitch to us, go to the creator tab. And then there's

00:45:30.100 an investor tab too, if you're an accredited investor and would like to know more about

00:45:33.600 what we can do in that sense, just let us know. We're looking for obviously investors with money,

00:45:44.820 but our main priority is that they're not cowards and they have a backbone and

00:45:49.580 they're not going to cave to cancel culture. That's really important to us.

00:45:53.080 Cool. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show, Marcus. I appreciate it.

00:45:56.960 Yeah, man. Thanks for having me.

00:45:58.740 Thanks so much for listening, but real quick, before you go,

00:46:01.880 do us a small favor,

00:46:03.160 take a moment and leave us a five-star review. If you enjoyed the show,

00:46:06.900 this is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this biblically

00:46:11.460 faithful content to as many people as possible.

00:46:14.200 Thanks so much.

The NXR Podcast - May 17, 2022

THEOLOGY APPLIED - Christians Must Build, Not Just Boycott

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